Author's Note: Thanks again for all of your reviews! I'm not the happiest with this chapter, to be honest, but I'll let all of you be the judge. Enjoy!
Santana pulled her red convertible into the driveway next to Brittany's silver Prius. Brittany always had been so obsessed with protecting the environment. Santana smiled gently at the only bumper sticker on Brittany's car, stating "I Heart Hugs" and felt her chest tighten up again at the prospect of confronting her wife. Santana had never felt nervous to come into her own home before. She pulled down the visor so she could look at herself in the mirror and pushed the button to let the convertible top slide up to cover the top of her car. The stress had made her a little sweaty and her makeup had run down her face from all the crying and her hair was a disaster from all the stress induced pulling at it. She tried to clean herself up a bit, but then decided it was a waste of her time. If Brittany were going to leave her, it wouldn't matter if she looked the hottest she'd ever been or if she looked disheveled. She opened the door to her home and threw her keys in the duck bowl. She almost began crying again, thinking about ducks and Brittany and how badly she had screwed up this time.
"San? You home? I'm in the kitchen," Brittany called from the kitchen. Santana finally noticed the smells wafting through the house. She walked towards her wife's voice. When she saw her, her heart fluttered in her chest. Brittany was wearing a form fitting blue dress that perfectly matched her eyes, covered slightly by a white apron with a big yellow duck on it. The apron had loopholes built in so that it looked like the duck was carrying the kitchen utensils. Brittany, true to form, had tucked a spoon, two spatulas, and a kitchen knife in the loopholes. Her blond hair was down, slightly curled, with bangs that just brushed across the top of her eyes.
"B…what's going on? Are you cooking again? And where did you get that apron?" Santana said, incredulous to the situation unfolding before her. Brittany looked up at Santana with worried eyes.
"Baby, what's wrong?" She pulled Santana to her with a spoon in one hand and kissed the top of her head. Santana could feel herself unraveling and the tears just came with no warning.
"I just had a hard day at work," she cried, as Brittany kissed the tears away.
"I'll make it better, San." She kissed her wife on the lips.
"When did you learn how to cook?" Santana said between sobs.
"Quinn's been teaching me. It's much easier to learn from her than from a recipe." She looked at her wife, who, for the most part, seemed to have pulled herself together. "Dinner is pretty much done, why don't you sit in the dining room and I'll see you in a couple minutes.
Santana went into their bedroom and threw her blazer on the bed. She reapplied her makeup and decided to just tell Brittany outright what had happened. As she made her way to the dining room she passed through their living room and she looked at all the pictures the two had accumulated through the years. There was the picture her abuela had taken of them the night of their seventh grade dance. There was Santana with her arm around Brittany when their parents left them for cheerleading camp, them at their first pride in High School, Brittany was covered in glitter, grinning and squeezing tightly to Santana. There was the year Glee club won Nationals, and High School graduation, and her first day of college. There were pictures of Brittany and Santana holding their nieces and nephews for the first time and Santana's graduation party, Brittany at her first big show, their first apartment, and their wedding day. It was her life. Their life. There was no way Brittany would throw all these memories away over a bracelet. She hoped. She really hoped.
Brittany had lit candles in the dining room and the food was all laid out; it looked beautiful. After they sat down, and began to eat, Brittany finally broke the silence.
"Are you ok? What happened to you today at work?" It was now or never.
"B…I lost my bracelet. I searched everywhere I went today and I just can't find it anywhere. I know I had it yesterday because a client asked about it and I explained all the charms to him and he looked at me like I had lost my mind because I was…you know…nice, but today, well, I just can't find it anywhere. And I love you so much, B, you are my whole world and I know I promised I would always wear it, but, B, please don't leave me." Santana looked down at her food, using everything in her power to keep the tears from falling.
"Santana, look at me." Santana looked up from her plate at Brittany, who surprisingly was looking at her as though she was adorable.
"You're adorable," Brittany said. She leaned behind her chair and picked something up off of the floor. "I was going to wait until after dinner to give you this, but I think it makes more sense to give it to you now." She handed Santana a small box. Santana opened it slowly. Inside was her charm bracelet.
"But when…why?"
"I took it when you were at the gym. I figured your lock would either be my combination or your combination from high school."
"I still don't understand why you would have taken it though…" Santana looked at her wife with questioning eyes. "Also, to be honest, I'm a little confused as to why you didn't know your locker combination all though high school, but somehow have managed to remember it ten years later when it's not relevant anymore." Brittany still did not respond. The bracelet did look cleaner than it had before, but if she wanted to get their bracelets polished, she didn't understand why Brittany wouldn't have just told her.
"You still don't get the point of the bracelet, do you, San?"
"What do you mean? I love this bracelet! I wear it everyday! I was a mess today, because I couldn't find the bracelet…"
"That's not what I mean…what I mean is that you say the same thing to me every time I give you charm, that you will never take it off, because you'll never forget the event that occurred to inspire the charm."
"Right. I will never forget any of those things." Santana didn't understand what Brittany was getting at. Brittany took both of Santana's hands in her own.
"Baby, I know." She picked up the bracelet and began going through the charms with Santana. "I know that you will never forget that you'll always love me more than any boy, and that you'll never forget the first time we had sex, or going to USC or getting married. Just like how I know…" Brittany knelt down and handed the bracelet back to Santana, grasping her free hand in her own. "Just like how I know that you will not forget that we have a child, but I want you to always remember the moment that I told you I was pregnant and the journey it took to get us here."
Santana looked down again at the bracelet; there was a pair of baby slippers hanging right next to her daisy charm.
"I had it custom made, that's why I had to take your bracelet. Remember that test we took three weeks ago that came back negative?" Santana nodded, looking wide-eyed at her wife. "Well I still hadn't gotten my period and was feeling sick pretty much all the time so I went to the doctor. It turns out it was a false negative, San. I'm pregnant."
"You're what?"
"I'm pregnant. We're going to have a baby."
"What?"
"Baby," Brittany said placing her hands on Santana's shoulders, "we're going to have a baby. Pregnancy test. False negative. Pregnant. Baby." Santana finally snapped out of her shock.
"Oh my god, B!" She pulled Brittany up and pulled her into a tight hug. "Are you serious?"
"Of course, I'm serious, silly," Brittany place a kiss on her wife's lips. When they broke apart for air Santana placed her hand on Brittany's still perfectly toned stomach.
"I can't believe our little guy or girl is in there." Brittany beamed, pulling Santana in for another kiss.
"Babe, I'm hungry. Can we eat now?" Santana laughed.
"Of course."
As they ate their meal, Santana stopping to give Brittany dopey smiles between every bite, she was reminded of the journey of her day.
"I still don't think I understand the bracelet though."
"What do you mean?"
"Every time you give me a new charm, it's to document something so that I don't forget it. But…I seriously doubt I'm ever going to forget our child."
"For the rest of our life, San, we will have this baby. You will never forget it, because she or he will be there. We will watch our child learn to say our names, to walk, fall down, ride a bike for the first time, play sports and take dance classes, spell their long hyphenated last name and explain their two mommies, wear braces, have crushes, cry over heartbreak, and be stupidly giddy the moment they fall in love for the first time. You will never forget our child. This charm is not about all of those amazing things that we're going to experience though. It's about remembering right now, as I'm holding your hands, telling you that we are becoming a family." Santana still did not speak, just reached out to hold her wife's hand across the table. "The bracelet is about our journey, Santana. It's about the moments between us that lead us here. You will look at this charm, San, and not think about our first child, but think about this moment between us when our family grew."
"I love you so much, B. I can't believe…I just can't believe we are going to have a family,"
"I love you too, San. And for the record, did you really think I was going to leave you over the bracelet?" Santana looked down bashfully. "You really are adorable, but have a little more faith in me next time," Brittany said smiling.
"I'm sorry, B, I know, you're right. I got a little crazy."
"It's ok, you're cute when you're crazy."
They finished eating and Santana insisted on doing all of the dishes while Brittany sat in the kitchen and rested because Brittany was officially no longer permitted to do any work for the next nine months.
"You know, B, today really got me thinking about our past." Santana said as she put the last of the pans on the drying rack. "I think we ought to make more of an effort to spend time with our old friends."
"I'd like that," Brittany said as she rose to wrap her hands around Santana's waist. "But tonight, I think we should spend some time celebrating just with each other." Santana turned her head to raise an eyebrow at her smirking wife. Brittany grabbed Santana's hand and started pulling her into the bedroom.
"B, are you sure this is safe? You know, with the baby and all—"
Brittany shut her up with a hard kiss that she maintained the whole way she pushed Santana into the bedroom and down onto the bed. It was going to be a long nine months.
A/N: Thanks again for reading, even though I know many of you knew where it was going from the start :) Like Brittany said, it's about the journey, people. Anyway, there will be one more chapter after this one, and thank you all for reading and reviewing!
